1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to devices for destroying hypodermic needles and, more particularly to a hand carried, hand operated portable apparatus for destroying hypodermic needles and safely storing the spent needles in a disposable removal container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For various health and legal reasons, such as the prevention of the spread of disease, cross contamination of patients and the prevention of illegal drug traffic, it is important that a hypodermic needle be destroyed after each use. In fact several states have laws that require doctors, nurses and other health care providers to destroy hypodermic needles immediately after use. This not only creates a substantial disposal problem but also creates a serious handling problem. Incidents are happening everyday in health care facilities where persons are being scratched by used needles and becoming ill and not knowing what the illness is related to. Accidental needle scratch injuries to health care personnel have become so extensive due to the careless handling of used needles that a major health care problem now exists among major hospitals. Committees have been formed within hospitals to specifically address the issue of lowering the number of needle scratch incidents among personnel in their facilities.
Apparatuses are in the prior art for destroying hypodermic needles. Representative of the prior art devices are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,315,448; 4,275,628; 3,469,750; 4,255,966; and 3,683,733. Although these devices will destroy a hypodermic needle, they are fairly substantial in size and therefore are required to be placed in a central location for use such as at each nurses' station within a hospital. These devices have serious drawbacks in that after each injection the nurse must bring back the used hypodermic needle to the nurses' station to these devices for destruction. Needle scratch incidents usually occur after the injection is given to the patient and before the nurse has an opportunity to return to the nurses' station to destroy the needle. It would therefore be desirable to have a portable apparatus that health care providers could carry with them to allow them to destroy the hypodermic needle immediately after the injection.
Recognizing the need to have health care personnel carry portable devices to detroy needles after their use, hand operated portable devices were developed. One hand carried, hand operated portable device for destroying hypodermic needles is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,865 to Andrew A. Oakes. The Oakes patent discloses a hand carried, hand operated portable device for destroying hypodermic needles. The device comprises a portable housing enclosing a needle chamber for storing the used needles after they were cut from the hypodermic syringe. Once the comparment is filled with used needles the entire apparatus is discarded.
While this apparatus, or variations of it, will certainly destroy a hypodermic needle, it does have some drawbacks. One major drawback is that the hypodermic needle must be inserted through a small orifice in an entry portal. This requires steady hands to prevent the needle from jumping out of the entry portal and scratching a finger of the hand holding the portable device. Health care personnel are usually very busy and very often are in high stress situations where injections must be given quickly and the hypodermic needle disposed of quickly. When one is very busy or in a high stress situation, it is very difficult sometimes to try to insert a small diameter needle through a small diameter orifice. This is tantamount to trying to thread a needle. Very often what happens is that the health care provider is in a hurry and tries to force the needle through the orifice without taking the necessary time to accurately line the needle up with the orifice which causes the needle to jump out of the entry portal and scratch a finger of the hand holding the device. Another drawback of this apparatus is that once the internal compartment is full of used needles, the entire apparatus must be discarded. However, the biggest problem associated with hand held, hand operated portable devices for destroying hypodermic needles is insertion of the needle into the device without scratching one's finger of the hand holding the device.
Consequently, a need exists for improvements in hand carried, hand operated portable devices for destroying hypodermic needles which would result in faster and safer insertion of the needle into the device for destruction thereof and therefore reducing needle scratch incidents among persons who give hypodermic injections.